SCOTS FIRM’S RENEWABLE ENERGY BREAKTHROUGH
Energy software provider, Smarter Grid Solutions, in partnership with AVANGRID, a leading sustainable energy company, has delivered a ground-breaking US grid integration project that has the potential to more than double wind and solar generation connections.
The project has successfully connected three new solar farms in New York to AVANGRID’s electric network using the Strata Grid Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) platform.
According to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the DERMS technology could increase grid hosting capacity by up to 200% – far beyond conventional technical limits and levels traditionally required for grid reinforcement.
The technology allows large-scale producers of renewable energy resources to easily connect to a power network where previously the network was believed to be at full capacity.
The application of the DERMS technology significantly reduces grid integration costs compared to traditional connection costs and is believed to be the first-of-its-kind in the United States.
Stuart McMahon, principal smart grid engineer at Glasgow-based Smarter Grid Solutions, said: “Each of these three solar farms produce five megawatts of electricity – enough to potentially overload existing local grid capacity.
“In the past, they would have initially been rejected from being able to connect to the grid until structural upgrades were made to increase this capacity and ensure a ‘firm’ interconnection.
“These upgrades cost millions of dollars and make many projects commercially and financially unviable.
“Our DERMS technology allows large-scale producers of renewable energy resources like these to more efficiently connect to the electric power grid by removing this risk.”
